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Alex didn’t mean to grow his hair out long.
It sort of just...happened.
When he came to Columbia three years ago, he was scraggly, underweight, and constantly sick. Oh, and he had a buzzcut. Then he met John and Laf and Herc, and he gained weight. Then he met Eliza, her brilliant older sister, and her pop-culture fluent younger sister, and he grew out his hair. Now, as a junior, it went past his shoulders. It’s not that he minded the long hair; he actually liked how it looked when it was up in a bun and away from his face. It's only went it was down and everywhere, greasy and gross, that it was the problem.
Alex scrunched his nose at the reflection in the mirror. He still had a black eye from that fight he had gotten in last week after the car accident, and his hair was greasy as fuck. It was just...hanging in his face. And it had been 90° yesterday. He picked up the scissors by the sink. Not to mention, John would flip. Alex hid a grin. That would be hilarious. He looked down at the bright red cast on his right arm, at the scissors, and then back again. He did want less hair, but he was sort of attached to his scalp. Maaaaybe he shouldn’t do this himself. He sighed, put down the scissors, and picked up his phone. Eliza’s little sister knew her way around a pair of sisters. He dialed her number.
“Peggy? I have a favor to ask you…”
“Alex is late.” John announced, throwing his phone across the carpet and stretching out on it. “Shoulda been here like three hours ago.”
Eliza rolled her eyes from the kitchenette, where she and Laf were chopping vegetables.
“Alex has never heard of ‘punctuality’ in his life, John. You know that.”
“Still. Three hours is a lot.”
“He’ll be here, dude, Chill.” Herc threw a pillow over his face. “You’re so clingy.”
“Okay, for the record, last time one of you wasn’t responding to my texts, you were in the ER with broken bones.” John pulled the blanket off his face. "So I reserve the right to be clingy."
“Oh my god, John, he’ll be here soon, merde. Come help chop these peppers.” Laf gestured with his knife. It barely missed Eliza’s arm, and Eliza made an alarmed face and gently pushed Laf’s hand back down to the cutting board.
“Ugh, fine.” John got up and joined Laf. “I’m better at not almost stabbing people anyway.”
“Sorry we’re late!” The door opened, and Peggy came in, laden with desserts. “I had an errand to run.”
“Yeah, sorry.” Alex was behind her, hood of his ratty blue sweatshirt pulled high over his head.
“Three and a half hours, Alexander!” Eliza scolded, giving Peggy a kiss on the cheek. “You gave John a heart attack.”
“Yeah!” John put his hands on his hips. “What gives, asshole?”
“Uh, no offense, Betsy, but I think this is gonna give him a bigger heart attack.” He pulled off his hood.
It took John a second to comprehend what he was looking at. Alex’s hair, it was gone. Like, gone, gone. His hair was nearly as short as Charles Lee.
“Oh my god.” John stuttered.
“Surprise?” Alex said weakly.
“You cut your hair?”
“Technically, I cut his hair.” Peggy offered from the couch, where she was sitting on Herc’s back and eating his gummy bears.
“Shut up, Peggy, you enabler.” John waved a hand in her general direction, staring at how his boyfriend’s hair was just long enough to flop over his forehead. “It’s-it’s gone.”
“Yeah. I was kinda sick of it. It was just too long, y’know? Time for a change.”
“I’ll say.” Laf snorted.
“You didn’t even tell me!”
Alex shrugged and grinned sheepishly.
“It was sort of a rash decision. I just sort of asked Peggy to do it. What with this…” He held up his cast. John rolled his eyes.
“Oh, yes, bringing up the fact that you got into a fight and broke your arm will put me in a better mood.”
“I’m just explaining!” Alex defended. “It’s my hair, anyway.” He went into the kitchenette and kissed Eliza, then stole a crouton from the salad Laf was mixing before he could slap his hand away. He paused in front of John.
“Do you like it?”
John studied him. It did actually suit him better than the long hair. It looked younger. More alive. But he was still pissed.
“Did you do it just to shock me?” He asked suspiciously. Alex grinned and kissed his forehead.
“Partly. But mostly, I just wanted to.”
“Asshole.” John crossed his arms and dodged his second kiss. “But, I guess it looks good.”
“It looks amazing, not good!” Peggy yelled from the couch. “I should know.”
“Shut up, Peggy!"